Jeff Blashill talks about his first day at training camp; Franzen talks about his new coach

 

By Pat Evans – 

TRAVERSE CITY — Jeff Blashill is used to training camps. He’s run American Hockey League camps the previous three seasons at the helm of the Grand Rapids Griffins.

The new Red Wings bench boss, who spent one season in Detroit under former head coach Mike Babcock, said the main difference this time around is the one extra team, but the camp did start off rough with a collision between Darren Helm and Jerome Verrier, which sent both players to the hospital less than 20 minutes into the first day.

It’s his first time running an NHL camp, but drills were much the same. The teams largely focused on breakouts, neutral zone transitions and entries.

“This is a group that, especially with the guys who have been on the Red Wings, they do it right,” Blashill said. “They’ve done that for a long time. We’re going to continue that on. The one challenge you have in camp, is you have some guys who haven’t done the drills, you have some guys that aren’t used to the pace, the speed at which we practice.

“That’s just an adjustment as you move around.”

Tomas Tatar said it’ll be weird to see Babcock behind the bench of another team, but that it’ll be good to be playing for Blashill again, with whom he won a Calder Cup with in Grand Rapids.

The styles are similar enough that Tatar said established players should make the transition easily.

“He is very similar to Mike,” he said. “They both know what they want. Today, he showed us what he wants.”

Henrik Zetterberg said it was refreshing to have some new expectations in camp. With Babcock, veterans mostly knew every play, when and what meetings were, Zetterberg said.

“Last four or five years, you know everything that’s going on,” he said. “Now you’ve got to kind of think out there and it is nice to reset your brain. You’ve got to pay a little more attention.”

While the comparisons to Babcock are just, Zetterberg said Blashill will coach the way he needs to to get the results he wants.

“He’s his own man, he’ll coach the way he wants to and it’s always different and refreshing for us.”

Coaching new players and at a new level was something even Blashill had to shake off as he tries to cover as much as possible in three days in Traverse City.

“Every new job I’ve taken, whether it was in juniors, college, American League, here, pretty much every single season, I think you have a little bit of butterflies,” he said. “You have nerves in a sense that you want to be as prepared as possible and you want to cover as much as you can.

“It’s almost impossible to have everything covered. You’re going to have some stumbling blocks today, but you have to be able to react.”

Franzen talks about his new coach

For the first time in his 10-year NHL career, Johan Franzen has a new coach.

And he’s excited about head coach Jeff Blashill’s first season.

“It’s a new voice, so that’s kind of exciting,” Franzen said. “It’s a fresh start and it’s kind of like you’re young again. You want to show what you can do. Even though I’m 35, I want to show him that side.”

Franzen played 33 games last season — scoring seven goals and assisting on 15 more — before suffering a concussion in January and missing the remainder of the season.

The concussion was likely at the least the fifth of his career, which was in question through the offseason.

Early on in camp, however, Blashill can tell Franzen is ready to go for the next year.

“Mules been around the rink here a bunch,” he said. “He seems like he’s in great spirits, excited to be refreshed and get going.

“That’s what I saw here today.”